Calgary facility connects sheltered city kids to the outdoors, hunting and the realities of their meat

Swerve magazine’s Our Town, a weekly look at the offbeat parts of Calgary, written by Jacquie Moore.

For certain rural Alberta kids—the precociously competent outdoorsy kind never without callouses, mud or fish guts on their hands—the idea of driving to a sedate building in the city to get in touch with nature is absurd. To his or her urban counterpart, however, connection with the wilder world sometimes requires a little preparation.

A free, not-for-profit public space, the Conservation Education Centre for Excellence is the head office of the Alberta Hunter Education Instructors Association, and a training facility for just about anything that might require a fishing rod, a bow or a couple of dry sticks. In other words, this is where capable, rule-following sports-people are made, no matter their provenance.

Between this location and its sister facilities in DeWinton, Caroline and Edmonton, more than 1.5 million Albertans have been certified for hunting and/or trained in “Bear Essentials,” archery and firearms safety, as well as taught lighter-weight outdoor skills such as how to properly back up a trailer, clean a trout, tie a fly and build a fire. As the centre’s chairman Bob Gruszecki puts it, the facility exists to “connect people to wildlife and wild places.”

Taxidermy on display at the Conservation Education Centre for Excellence in Calgary. Julya Hajnoczky/Swerve

Taxidermy on display at the Conservation Education Centre for Excellence in Calgary. Julya Hajnoczky/Swerve

Taxidermy on display at the Conservation Education Centre for Excellence in Calgary. Julya Hajnoczky/Swerve

Badges on display at the Conservation Education Centre for Excellence in Calgary. Julya Hajnoczky/Swerve

Bulletin board at the Conservation Education Centre for Excellence in Calgary. Julya Hajnoczky/Swerve

Taxidermy on display at the Conservation Education Centre for Excellence in Calgary. Julya Hajnoczky/Swerve

Taxidermy on display at the Conservation Education Centre for Excellence in Calgary. Julya Hajnoczky/Swerve

Taxidermy on display at the Conservation Education Centre for Excellence in Calgary. Julya Hajnoczky/Swerve

Taxidermy on display at the Conservation Education Centre for Excellence in Calgary.Julya Hajnoczky/Swerve

Taxidermy on display at the Conservation Education Centre for Excellence in Calgary. Julya Hajnoczky/Swerve

Perhaps most immediately edifying at this location is the CECE’s enormous collection of taxidermied animals. Here, visitors find more than 450 frozen-in-time specimens: representatives of every fur-bearing mammal in the province plus all the species of fish one could hope to see around these parts. It’s like Madame Tussauds for regional fauna.

In addition to the stuffed animals, the CECE has fur samples from every type of deer, bear and wild ungulate. These samples travel from school to school for the purpose of giving kids an up-close glimpse of what separates, say, a mule deer from the white-tailed variety (FYI, the latter’s fur is more reddish-brown than grey).

“Our programming helps people get to know Alberta’s wildlife,” says Gruszecki. “We send fur with an expert out to a kindergarten class or, say, a Grade 5 group learning about Champlain and the fur trade.” In addition, Gruszecki and his staff of volunteers teach archery in schools to 26,000 students annually, and spend hundreds of hours each year instructing environmental professionals in the finer points of outdoor safety.

In the process, the CECE also hopes, no doubt, to reduce some of the reductive stereotypes associated with hunting and fishing. It’s easy to understand this public-relations impulse: In a society where the act of consuming meat is typically disconnected from the act of slaughter, hunting can paradoxically seem brutal. Seen from a more socially self-aware angle, though, it can appear refreshingly direct. Sheltered city kids, prepare to be amazed.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.